At the end of January 2020, just before traveling was banned due to the pandemic, I was in Turkey, and we had to run with a friend because we were late for the airport checkup. After running for less than a minute, I could not breathe.
This was like a wake-up call to me, and I realized I was overweight and out of shape; it was time to change. Here are the five changes that improved my life.
5 Habit Changes That Improved My Life
I remember the day I arrived in Mexico, 13 February 2020, I decided to change. The five changes that improved my life are changing my eating habits, sleeping better, being grateful, walking daily, and drinking water. These habits helped me improve my quality of life.
Healthy eating.
I remember picking up a Spanish book about metabolism, and the author talked about how to improve your metabolism and lose weight by changing how you eat.
In the book, the author divided foods into two categories: Type S food, or food that is healthy, and Type F food, the type of food that is not very healthy.
His idea is that for every meal, you take three portions of Type S foods and one portion of Type F. He calls this diet a 3×1 diet.
You can check out this diet here.
The result
I was 111 kg when I started the diet. After six months, I lost 20 kg. By December 2020, I was 84 Kg; I am 78 kg now. For a 180 cm guy, it is not that bad.
Exercise.
Frank Suarez (the book’s author) suggests combining the 3×1 diet with 16 minutes of exercise.
He recommended that you run at your maximum speed for one minute and at your normal speed for 3 minutes; you do this four times in the morning.
I started doing this exercise and combined it with walking for 7k to 10k steps daily.
The result
I think this also had a huge contribution to my weight loss, but I also just started to feel better overall. I had muscle pain in my hands and hips that disappeared, my blood pressure went down, and I began to sleep better.
I started to sleep for 7 to 8 hours.
I can not sleep easily ( or that is what I thought). I used to stay up all night and sometimes sleep for 1 to 3 hours.
The problem with this is that I would feel stressed and sluggish the next day, reducing my production. I felt lazy and hungry all the time.
The result.
Sleeping for 7 to 8 hours helped me reduce pressure and stress and helped keep my blood sugar consistent.
It also helped me lose weight. I also noticed that I started to think more clearly. Quality sleep allowed me to be energetic and alert.
Drinking water.
Another change I made in my life was drinking more water. I do not drink beer, but I always used to drink sodas and sweet drinks most of the time. I started drinking 3 liters of water daily.
Results
Sodas and sweet drinks contain a lot of sugar. Just cutting them was a huge success. I immediately lost weight.
Drinking water made me feel full most of the time. This helped me to eat less and accelerated my weight loss.
Water helps dissolve minerals and nutrients, making them more accessible to the body. It also helps remove waste products.
Drinking water helped me to maximize my physical performance. It also helped me stay hydrated, and my focus and productivity greatly increased.
I become more grateful.
One day, I was watching a video. I think it was from Gary Vee. In the video, he spoke about being grateful for everything in your life and owning it.
So what I did is that the first thing I would do is say thank you. I would wake up and say Thank You.
You do not have to be specific, but if you are a Christian, you can say Thank you, Jesus, or Thank You, God.
If you are a Muslim, you can say Thank you, Allah, and if you are an atheist, you can say Thank you, the universe, or just Thank you.
The result.
Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood, and immunity.
Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain, and risk of disease. If a pill could do this, everyone would be taking it.
Key takeaways
When my life was in the blink of changing from bad to worse, I changed how I ate by implementing the 3×1 diet.
I started to exercise more, I started to sleep 7 to 8 hours, I started to drink more water and be more grateful. These are the five habit changes that Improved my life.